Information on FpML

[fpmladmin]

Good morning, My name is Luis and I work in Risk Management, in the monitoring and valuation of derivatives, at European Investment Bank. I have been reading the information about FpML, but I have not a clear idea of which is the nature of the tool and how can it be used in internal and external communication of derivative transactions. It is said in FpML information that it can be used for communicating details between companies participating in a transaction, witihn company seeking to integrate information across systems, … , but it is also said in FaQ that it is not an application for confirming trades. I dont’ understand what FpML provides and which are the internal developments to be done in order to use it. On the other side, I suppose that, for using it as a communication tool, it would be needed to be used by both parties. is it the case? If yes, which is the utilisation of FpML in the banking sector? I don(t know if there will be avaialble some roadmap for the implementation of the usage of FmPL in an organisation (steps for the implementation, etc.) and also some comments on the expereience of counterparties having adopted it. Thank you in advance for your answer. Best regards Luis

[fpmladmin]

Hello Luis, FpML defines a standard format for exchanging information about OTC derivatives, mainly for confirmation purposes, in XML format. See attached an example of an FpML file for representing a vanilla interest rate swap. You can open it with a text editor like notepad for example. The rationale for FpML is that in case of electronic communication, it gets very expensive if each institution or service provider defines its own format for representing the data. Its much more efficient if all parties use a standard format to exchange otc derivatives data. Lets say that the European Investment Bank wants to communicate OTC trades in electronic format with counterparty x. Instead of each institution defining their own data models and then investing resources in translating from one format to the other, its much more efficient if both parties use an open electronic standard such as FpML to communicate the information (no translation is required). The same format can also be used in the future for other parties or service providers. FpML doesnt provide any confirmation, matching service. FpML only provides the format of the data and the definition of some business processes around the otc products. Confirmation/Affirmation services, such as DTCC or SwapsWire, use FpML (or extension of FpML) so when you communicate to them to send your trades, you can use FpML to do that. All major investment banks and service providers in the otc market use FpML in some way or another. FpML comes to scene when you have an automation project related to derivatives and you need to communicate the data between systems or between parties. While building your application, you need to choose a data format for that communication. FpML provides you a free and open standardized format for most the otc derivatives products and processes. Id recommend you to download the FpML Editor Viewer at http://www.fpml.org/tools/editor/index.html. Its free for all ISDA members. The FpML Users Guide is also a good manual to start with FpML https://www.isdadocs.org/publications/fpmlusrguideindex.html In addition, ISDA offers FpML training courses in New York and London, customized in-house training, and consulting services around FpML. Hope this helps. Marc

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